Soviet vs Chinese Dialectical and Historical Materialism

[heiss93]

Could someone please elaborate on Major differences in Soviet vs Chinese Dialectical and Historical Materialism. They are pretty similar due to the strong pre-1956 Soviet influence on Chinese philosophy. In Historical materialism, the big debate seems to be over voluntarism and the effect of superstructure on base. Also historical questions about Oriental slavery and feudalism and Asiatic despotism. Chinese dialectics has a strong influence of Eastern dialectics from Daoism. Actually the Soviet view on Contradiction is not significantly different from the Maoist view. The only significant difference is on the particular aspects of contradiction, developed by Mao and not the Soviets. As far as the "lesser categories of dialectics" go, I believe the Chinese basically accepted standard Soviet ideas. The Hegelian/Young Marx tradition is stronger on the Soviet side for obvious reasons. The Soviets pushed more strongly the scientific aspects of Dialectics, and I''m not sure if Maoists ever attempted to apply Dialectics to nature. According to China Quarterly Mao and Lenin differed significantly on the methods of cognition, logical applications, and the relativity of knowledge.

I would be interested in hearing your thoughts, especially from partisans of either view.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

This is about as interesting a topic as debating the Roman Catholic versus the Greek Orthodox view of how many angels can dance on the end of a pin.

Both sets of communists were a priori dogmatists, keen to impose 'the dialectic' on nature and society.

However, if you absolutely have to know, get hold of one or more of these:

Meissner, W. (1990) Philosophy And Politics In China. The Controversy Over Dialectical Materialism In The 1930s (Hurst & Company).

Knight, N. (2005), Marxist Philosophy In China: From Qu Qiubai To Mao Zedong, 1923-1945 (Springer).

Tian, C. (2005), Chinese Dialectics. From Yijing To Marxism (Lexington Books).

Schram, S. (1969), The Political Thought Of Mao Tse-Tung (Penguin Books, 2nd ed.).

--------, (1989), The Thought Of Mao Tse-Tung (Cambridge University Press).

Chan, A. (2003), Chinese Marxism (Continuum Books).

Liu, J. (2006), An Introduction To Chinese Philosophy. From Ancient Philosophy To Chinese Buddhism (Blackwell).

Creel, H. (1953), Chinese Thought From Confucius To Mao Tse-Tung (University of Chicago Press).

Bakhurst, D. (1991), Consciousness And Revolution In Soviet Philosophy. From The Bolsheviks To Evald Ilyenkov (Cambridge University Press).

Graham, L. (1971), Science And Philosophy In The Soviet Union (Allen Lane).

Wetter, G. (1958), Dialectical Materialism (Routledge).